I'll tell you what people, this teacher who's gone and broken open the skull of one his pupils; I'll be honest with you, it's not the degree of violence bestowed on the kid that's surprised me, it's that it doesn't happen every week to be fair and in all fairness. I mean if the consequence of this loss of control is a life time in prison - which in real terms is about 10 years - or being returned to this hell of a job for the rest of his working life - say another 15 years - surely prison wouldn't seem all that unpleasant? And having taken one of the urchins down with you, you get to have the last laugh, even if it is the manic cackle of someone who is clinging to their sanity by a thread. It's a wonder more teachers aren't dragging kids off for a bit of pay back really.

One mustn't jest though. I'm not of course condoning his chosen act of vengeance. But given the utter contempt little darling school kiddies have for authority and the prevalence of the verbal and physical abuse of teachers, ...I understand.

Conditions within our state education schools are akin to maximum security prisons. Discipline has become just something they used to install in the olden days. I'd confidently lay odds of about 2/1 that the kid on the end of this beating was a gobby little sprog who had probably subjected this teacher to a prolonged period of abuse and mental torment spanning months, safe in the knowledge that the bloke would have no recourse what ever.

On this occasion sadly for the pupil, he had failed to take into consideration that even the most gentle pacifist has a breaking point, and anyone given the appropriate level of provocation would in fact be capable of dragging him off in a headlock and stoving his head in with a heavy metal object.

One must consider the facts before judging either party. State education has utterly failed, comprehensive school pupils are uncontrollable little hooligans, this teacher had had a stroke, almost certainly due to the stresses and strains of his job and this child and his friends were in this process of humiliating the guy at the time of the attack, an humiliation which had been going on for many weeks possibly months. Now, I'm not suggesting for a moment that the kid deserved his brains being hammered out of his head through his eyes and squashed into the carpet, but I understand.